Prison Rape of White Men by Black and Hispanic Men

There are more men raped in the United States—about 140,000 every year—than women—a mere 90,000. (figures corrected from Am Ren) Most of the male rapes take place , and good many of them are interracial, with blacks and Hispanics searching out and raping white men. [No Escape: Male Rape in U.S. Prisons]

The stories the report recounts, described in a 2002 article in the newsletter American Renaissance, are graphic and repellent. “I had no choice but to submit to being Inmate B’s prison wife,” one white convict said. “In all reality, I was his slave.… I determined I’d be better off to willingly have sex with one person, than I would be to face violence and rape by multiple people. The most tragic part to this is that the person I chose to ‘be with’ has AIDS.”

Another white prisoner in Michigan reported that the black inmate who “claimed me as his property” “publicly humiliated and degraded me, making sure all the inmates and guards knew that I was a queen and his property. Within a week he was pimping me out to other inmates at $3.00 a man. This state of existence continued for two months until he sold me for $25.00 to another black male who purchased me to be his wife.” Those are only a couple of the less lurid stories from the Human Rights Watch report.

As the report puts it, “African Americans typically face sexual abuse at the hands of other African Americans, and Hispanics at the hands of other Hispanics. Some inmates told Human Rights Watch that this pattern reflected an inmate rule, one that was strictly enforced: ‘only a black can turn out [rape] a black, and only a chicano can turn out a chicano.’ Breaking this rule by sexually abusing someone of another race or ethnicity, with the exception of a white inmate, could lead to racial or ethnic unrest, as other members of the victim’s group would retaliate against the perpetrator’s group.”

Judgment REVERSED and case REMANDED. O’Connor, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer, JJ., joined. Ginsburg, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which Souter and Breyer, JJ., joined. Stevens, J., filed a dissenting opinion. Thomas, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Scalia, J., joined. Rehnquist, C. J., took no part in the decision of the case.

Mar 28 2005

JUDGMENT ISSUED.

Apr 12 2005

Record returned to U.S.C.A.-9th Circuit.

Apr 12 2005

U.S.D.C. record for the Central District of California returned to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S.C.A.-9th Circuit.

~~Name~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~Address~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~Phone~~~

Attorneys for Petitioner:

Bert H. Deixler

Proskauer, Rose, LLP

(310) 557-2900

Counsel of Record

2049 Century Park East

Suite 3200

Los Angeles, CA 90067

Party name: Garrison S. Johnson

Attorneys for Respondents:

Frances T. Grunder

Office of the Attorney General

(415) 703-5723

Counsel of Record

455 Golden Gate Avenue, #11000

San Francisco, CA 94102-7004

Party name: California, et al.

Other:

Elizabeth Alexander

Natl Prison Project of ACLU

(202) 393-4930

733 15th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20005

Party name: American Civil Liberties Union,et al.

Paul D. Clement

Solicitor General

(202) 514-2217

United States Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Room 5614

Washington, DC 20530-0001

Party name: United States

John H. Findley

Pacific Legal Foundation

(916) 419-7111

3900 Lennane Drive, Suite 200

Sacramento, CA 95834

Party name: Pacific Legal Foundation

David Thomas Goldberg

99 Hudson Street, 8th Floor

(212) 334-8813

New York, NY 10013

Party name: National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers, Inc.

8 Responses to “Prison Rape of White Men by Black and Hispanic Men”

Guns aren’t the answer; complete segregation of different ethnic groups (in completely separate facilities, NOT just different wings of the same institution) might help curb interracial rapes as well as interracial gang activity. The ultimate problem—non-consensual sex—is not as easily solved as long as large numbers of men (often far more than the facility was designed for) are confined together. Perhaps providing prisoners with masturbation aids like silicone sleeves would lessen sexual assaults, but I suspect the rapes have more to do with power and domination than they do with sex.